ShortsTV, a worldwide channel dedicated to short films, said it made a deal with SeriesFest to present “Best of SeriesFest,” which will curate five award-winning pilots.

“Best of SeriesFest'' will air June 24 to July 11 on ShortsTV’s networks and coincide with SeriesFest season seven.

The event is part of a three-year licensing agreement between ShortTV and SeriesFest.

“ShortsTV’s platform for short-form creators and filmmakers is ground-zero in the gold rush for new creative storytelling ideas, and our partnership with SeriesFest will highlight some of the best emerging talent in episodic storytelling,” said ShortsTV founder and CEO Carter Pilcher. “We’re thrilled to join with SeriesFest to give these amazing new stories a chance to be seen globally as the first step on their exciting journey.”

Also Read: ShortsTV Plans 2021 Worldwide Film Festival

The films featured during Best of SeriesFest are Super, an American film about a junior high school student with super powers; Eat The Rich, an Irish film about a bike courier turned Robin Hood; Beast, an American mystery-drama about the disappearance of a fisherman; Currency, about a collapse of the U.S. banking system and Farr, an Irish film about a young police officer.

SeriesFest is a non-profit organization that provides year-round opportunities for creators and industry professionals to connect, collaborate, and share stories. Each June, SeriesFest culminates in a Denver-based festival and marketplace.

Also Read: Shorts International Names Allen President of ShortsTV

“We're excited to partner with ShortsTV to give our amazing creatives another opportunity to show their work to a global audience," added SeriesFest co-founder and CEO Randi Kleiner. "These pilots show the breadth of creativity and stories we present at SeriesFest. And for those who want to see more innovative content, they can attend this year's virtual festival happening at the same time."

ShortsTV is available in over 100 million homes across the U.S., India, Latin America, Europe and more. It is available across the U.S. on DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, AT&T TV, AT&T TV Now, Frontier Communications, Google Fiber and Hotwire.

ShortsTV said it will host the 2021 ShortsTV Worldwide Film Festival and awards show in December and air the winning films on its channels globally later that month.

The call for submissions in the U.S., Latin America, India and Europe is open now through March 31. 

“Launching a worldwide short film competition has long been a goal of ours here at ShortsTV. We’ve built the ShortsTV Worldwide Film Festival just like a global sports match or the Eurovision Song Contest, starting with regional competitions across four regions and building to a final round where the best shorts from around the globe compete head-to-head,” said ShortsTV CEO and founder Carter Pilcher. 

“We’ve had great success with our individual regional film festivals and pitch competitions within the past two decades, but the ShortsTV Worldwide Film Festival gives us a focal point to honor and promote the amazing artistic work being done in shorts,” Pilcher said. “Short films continue to be the development lab for the world’s most highly-awarded feature filmmakers, many of whom have made more short films than feature films and we expect this film festival will be a platform for launching the careers of many of the world’s future greats in cinema.” 

Films can be submitted at https://festhome.com/festival/shortstv-worldwide-film-festival, which also provides more information on awards, prizes and deadlines. In June, ShortsTV will announce the regional selections, which will air on their respective regional channels in October. In November, all global channels will broadcast the nominees’ films internationally in over 100 million homes. 

Shorts International said it has named Jeff Allen as president of ShortsTV (U.S.), a linear and OTT channel dedicated to short-form video entertainment, and its Latin American channel TVCortos.

Reporting directly to Shorts International Chief Executive Carter Pilcher within Shorts Entertainment Networks, the U.S. subsidiary of Shorts International, Allen will oversee and manage all U.S. and Latin American operations including content acquisitions, sales and growth, programming, marketing and more.

“As Shorts International continues to evolve and grow globally, I couldn’t think of a better fit than Jeff to spearhead the ShortsTV and TVCortos efforts,” Shorts International chief executive Carter Pilcher said in a release. “Jeff brings a vast amount of experience across many industry verticals, from both an operational and creative standpoint, and will play a critical role on our team.”

Based in Los Angeles, Allen most recently was vice president of operations at Hallmark Labs, the subsidiary of Hallmark Cards, Inc., that enables their digital, direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses including Hallmark Movies Now, Hallmark eCards, and Hallmark Shoebox. He also worked for a short form SVOD startup called SpiritClips that was acquired by Hallmark in 2012.

Shorts International has named Jeff Allen president of ShortsTV, a channel dedicated to short-form video in the U.S., and TVCortos in Latin America.

Allen, most recently VP of operations at Hallmark Labs, the subsidiary of Hallmark Cards that enables digital, direct-to-consumer businesses including Hallmark Movies Now, will oversee and manage content acquisition, programming, sales and marketing for all of Shorts International’s U.S. and Latin American operations.

“As Shorts International continues to evolve and grow globally, I couldn’t think of a better fit than Jeff to spearhead the ShortsTV and TVCortos efforts,” said Shorts International chief executive Carter Pilcher. “Jeff brings a vast amount of experience across many industry verticals, from both an operational and creative standpoint, and will play a critical role on our team.”

Allen will be based in Los Angeles and report to Pilcher.

“I’ve been a longtime fan of ShortsTV and I am very passionate about our product and mission," said Allen. "It’s impressive what the team has already accomplished over the last couple of decades to secure a global foothold in the short form entertainment category. I am grateful for the opportunity to join the ranks and leverage my experience in the industry to contribute to growth in the U.S. and Latin America. We’re seeing a significant rise in short form consumption globally and I’m thrilled to join the team during such an exciting time in this space.”

ShortsTV has the largest catalog of quality short form video entertainment, including award-winning and star-studded live action, animated and documentary shorts from filmmakers around the globe. Distributed globally, the channel is available in 100 million homes across the U.S., India, Latin America, the Netherlands, Belgium and Eastern Europe. It is available in the U.S. on DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, AT&T TV, AT&T TV Now, Frontier Communications, Google Fiber, and Hotwire.